Far-Right Populist Strategies of Mobilization:
“Shameless Normalization”
Em. Professor Ruth Wodak, FAcSS
Distinguished Professor and Chair of Discourse Studies Lancaster University/University Vienna
r.wodak@lancaster.ac.uk
http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/profiles/265
Outline
• Introduc)on: The Far-Right Populist (FRP) Narra)ve
- The Poli)cs of Fear (and Hope)
• Framework
- Discourse, FRP Rhetoric, and Performing Authen)city
• Examples: “Shameless Normaliza)on”
- Illegal Migrants
- AMacking “Vienna”
- The Far-Right Populist Perpetuum Mobile
• Conclusions
- Consequences and Counter-Discourses
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The Populist Far-Right and Democracy
“Far-Right populism is an expression
and catalyst for the transition from class politics to value politics, from party
politics to symbolic politics, from
ideological to identity politics, from socio-economic to cultural cleavages.”
(Irina Krasteva 2017, Re/De/Constructing the Far-Right Youth: Between the Lost Generation and the Contestatory Citizenship, 21).
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The Far-Right Populist Narrative
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcV6aUw4xhU
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1. "I sing this song have tears in my face
2. It is tears full of pride and I'm not ashamed of them
3. This song is for the country that is my home to me
4. To which I owe so much and that I never ever forget
5. As long as I live and can breathe this land alone will
6. be my home and my love
7. It should not matter if you are poor or rich 8. The main thing is in your heart beats our Austria
2x chorus 1:
9. Always Austria….
12. Forever and ever
13. For honesty, jusLce and loyalty 14. We Austrians are always known
15. So now you all reach out to each other like the best of friends
16. shake hands and swear and swear on your country
17. And I am so in love with our Vienna where my roots lie
18. where I do not have to explain myself
19. the beauLful feeling deep inside of me when I am understood by you
20. This does not exist a second Lme in the world 21. That's the only thing that maRers
4x refrain 2:
22. Stay my home, you, my Vienna 23. I always stand by you, my Vienna
24. You will stay in my heart forever and ever“
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“The FRP Narrative”
“Once upon a time”, there were free separate peoples.
“We nationalist populists are helping to bring back that earlier (and better) order”.
- Manichean division between “Us” and “Them” (people/the people and strangers) - Strategies of provocation and ‘calculated ambivalence’ –> ‘post-shame’
- Repetitive collocations (discourse prosody, ‘persistent aura of meaning’ associated with a term)
Active and context-dependent attempt to establish the far- right populist and nationalist/nativist “vision” of the world .
(P. Chilton 2017 “The people” in populist discourse: using neuro-cognitive linguistics to understand political meanings” JLP; R. Wodak 2017 The “Establishment”, the
“Élites”, and the “People”: Who’s who?” JLP)
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Main Contents of Far-Right Politics
• Na#onalism/Na#vism/An6-Pluralism
• An6-Eli6sm/An6-Intellectualism (An#-Exper#se)
• Authoritarianism/“Law-& Order”- Poli6cs
• Conserva6sm/Revisionism/ Welfare-Chauvinism
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Discourse, Populist Rhetoric,
and Performing Authen8city
• All FRP parties instrumentalize (ethnic/ religious/ linguistic/
political) minorities as scapegoats – as a threat to ‘us’, to ‘our’
nation; crisis scenarios; ‘politics of fear’.
• FRP promise to ‘solve’ this ‘problem’ – as saviours and as ‘voice’ of the ‘people’; this leads to hope.
• Appeals to common sense, emotions (pathos), and anti-
intellectualism; FRP perform “authenticity” and “sincerity”.
• “Normalization” of the “unsayable”; division of societies.
The Politics of Fear
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Beispiel I: Britische Schlagzeilen – Der Beitrag der Medien!
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FRP (Rhetorical) Strategies
• “Calculated ambivalence” and denial
• Victimhood and conspiracies
• Speaking for and on behalf of “the people” (ad populum
argument) – repetition of simple narrative and “battle cries”
• Authenticity: “speaking like us, to us”; provides identification
• Promise of salvation and liberation – “Topos of the saviour”
• “Anti-politics” – rejection of dialogue, eristic argumentation
• “Bad manners” – flouting the cooperative principle, lying,
breaking taboos, and blaming the elites for creating the taboos (>> PC)
• Continuous provocation propagated as liberation
12EXAMPLES:
– Challenging (Media) Institutions – Creating “Illegal Migrants”
– Provocation and Scandalisation
The Representation of Refugees and their Actions
14 violence and
transgression 41%
movement and travel
24%
arrival 18%
cost8%
flight and search 4%
death and dying
3% life and living 2%
Austrian newspapers (2015) Press releases of the EC (2015)
transgression 17%
movement and travel
21%
arrival 30%
cost2%
flight and search 19%
death and dying 2%
life and living 9%
ESA, Ruth Wodak, Semi-Plenary. r.wodak@lancaster.ac.uk
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Provoca'on:
A+acking the Media – “Fake News”
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“There is a place where lies become news.
That is the ORF.
The best of Fake News, lies and propaganda, pseudo-culture and involuntary fees. Regional and internaConal. In television, in radio and on the Facebook profile of Armin Wolf.”
= ORF LIKE US
ORF WIE WIRR = “ORF LIKE CRAZY.”
Chronology of the Scandal
12. February 2018 (Ash Wednesday): Strache posts defamaCon on Facebook
13. February 2018: Armin Wolf files charges against Strache
24. February 2018: Judge states that this posCng could be slander 25. February 2018: Director of ORF files charges against Strache
13. March 2018: Trial ended with published apology of Strache; Strache had to pay 10.000€ which Wolf donated to the DÖW (Archive for Austrian Resistance)
---
17. May 2018: FPÖ Steger elected as chair of board of trustees of ORF 7/8 June 2018: ÖVP-FPÖ Government will launch “media enquiry” and promises new “media law”
Attempt to frame as satire
Scandal is (intentionally) produced by a RWP politician (“fake news”)
Media report the new scandal in
many details
The reporting is denied
The event is re-defined
Vic6mhood is claimed.
Vic6m- perpetrator
reversal Dramatization:
conspiracy Scapegoats
are created
evidence, New accusationsnew Quasi-apology –
‚calculated ambivalence‘/ no
apology
Perpetuum Mobile
Typical Patterns in Media Debates
FRP Perpetuum Mobile
17Counter-Strategies against Con/nuous Provoca/ons
• Jokes, irony
• Meta-level commentary – labelling destructive dynamics
• Fact-checking
• Implementing laws against discrimination, hate-speech, hate- incitement
• Frame-change
• New narrative, oriented towards accepting the present and presenting an inclusive vision of the future
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CONCLUSIONS
Causes
Consequences
Counter-Discourses
“Post-Shame Era”
Lying and Normalization of the “Unsayable”
• Lying and Normalization of the “Unsayable” accompanies/furthers the undermining of checks and balances of liberal democracies
Far-right populism Illiberalism Neo-authoritarianism
• Shameless lying: Trump lied 3250 times in 500 days; Washington Post – 16 lies/day
• Conventional rules of negotiation, conversation and argumentation are flouted
• Parallel “discourse worlds” and “truths” exist – polarisation of societies
• Step-by-step transformation of liberal democracies into authoritarian states
(Wodak, R. (2017) 'The “Establishment”, the “Élites”, and the “People”: Who’s who?' Journal of Language and Politics 16/4: 651- 666; (2018) Entering the ‘Post-Shame Era’ – the Rise of Illiberal Democracy, Populism and Neo-Authoritarianism in EUrope: The case of the turquoise-blue government in Austria 2017/2018’ in ‘The Limits of EUrope’, Special Issue; Global Discourse (in press).)
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COUNTER-STRATEGIES : “Back to the Future”
• Launching new posiCve (and non-simplis-c) counter- narraCves about “change” and the future – how to
cope with real challenges
(awareness of challenges; inclusive society; inves-ng in educa-on, innova-on and new jobs (digitalisa-on); par-cipa-on; new life and work-balance)• Avoid falling into destrucCve rhetorical dynamics
(based on analy-cal understanding of the social and historical roots of the rise of FRP and its rhetorics; beBer mediacompetence, beBer – also emoConalizing – slogans)
• CreaCng parCcipaCon on many local, regional (na-onal) levels (e.g. Ireland) – beBer integraCon of migrants/refugees
• Addressing new electorates, providing unity/organisa-onal iden-fica-on for precariat and other novel professions
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“BACK TO THE FUTURE!”
Inclusive Societies Coping with Future Challenges
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